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Wednesday, July 17, 2013

ZIMMERMAN BLOWBACK

Temecula, CA – As I sit, still caught up in the afterglow of
my best summer vacation ever, the world around me is experiencing what we used
to call politically, ‘a long hot summer’. The under-

reported anti-Monsanto moms,
Egypt’s Middle East turmoil, nude protests, and now the Zimmerman verdict rolls
into focus. Perhaps Dick Gregory was right about the effect of chem trails on
people, or maybe this is Emmet Till’s revenge.

‘On August 24, 1955
fourteen-year-old Emmett Till reportedly flirted with a white cashier at a
grocery store while visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi. Four days later,
two white men kidnapped Till, beat him, and shot him in the head. The men were
tried for murder, but an all-white, male jury acquitted them. Till's murder and
open casket funeral galvanized the
emerging civil rights movement.’

I admit, I still haven’t figured out why the jury was only 6
people, instead of twelve or why the jury was all female, but in a Southern
state that’s shaped like a penis maybe the verdict outcome was self evident
concerning an unarmed black kid shot dead by a ‘white’ Hispanic/Cuban. The
interview by Juror 37, a military mom of two who originally planned to cash in by
writing a book about the trial [and why not, this is America] drew this comment,

“This B37 interview was stunning.
This woman gave ALL the benefit of the doubt to Zimmerman, ALL the compassion,
ALL the empathy, ALL the sense of entitlement and innocence.

And, ZERO of any of this to Martin. No empathy, no
benefit of the doubt, no sense that Martin would have to defend himself,
no sense that he had a good heart.

I've never seen such extreme bias, and it can only be
attributed to race.”

In her interview she said Zimmerman "started the ball
rolling" and could have avoided the situation by staying in his car.
"But he wanted to do good. I think he had good in his heart, he just went overboard," the juror told CNN.
Asked later whether she thought Zimmerman was within his rights, she said: "He
was justified in shooting Trayvon Martin."

Another comment

“This juror, B 37, definitely aligns herself with, as she
called him Georgie, (but) not Trayvon, who she calls, that kid! She even claims that she doesn't understand people like Trayvon. He was just a kid, whether white or
black, our society has learned behaviors that give us our actions, and discrimination. I think their actions that night say a lot of who they are,
especially GZ, but not so much Trayvon because all we really know of
Trayvon (is) he is a dead kid who was innocently walking home, was profiled and
shot dead by someone Trayvon never knew. GZ was an individual that set himself
on a crash course for this action to take place through his thought process and
now actions. He selectively picked a boy walking through this housing complex
and then stalked him without seeing any
proof that he was doing any crime, but in his mind was a criminal because of his race and that he resembled a criminal by wearing a hoodie
on a rainy nite.”

Trayvon Martin's mother has a good job - she works for
Miami-Dade County. His father is a truck driver. This ‘kid’ did not grow up
poor or in poverty. So the idea that because he is black and therefore - not
"middle class" - is wrong.

How about ‘Georgie’ boy? He's currently being accused of
fondling, groping, and kissing a female child from the age of 6 until she was
about 8. She's now a woman, and as her story reads, will be filing charges
against him now this Trayvon "thing" is over.

In 2005 and 2006 Zimmerman was charged with speeding, “resisting an
officer with violence” and “battery of a law enforcement officer,” both of
which are third-degree felonies. The charge was later reduced to “resisting
officer without violence” and then waived when he entered an alcohol education
program.

In August 2005, Zimmerman’s ex-fiancee, Veronica Zuazo,
filed a civil motion for a restraining order alleging domestic violence. Zimmerman counter-filed for a restraining order
against Zuazo. The competing claims were resolved with both restraining orders
being granted.

Zimmerman learned he could skirt the law to get away with
crime, that emboldened him, and now, because he has NEVER been held to account,
his crimes have escalated to murder. At present Zimmerman is in hiding with
people who think the way he does.

The backlash has to Juror B37’s Runaway Jury inclination has been the ‘I Am Not Trayvon Martin’ counter-movement. The spark that started
the fire may very well have been a Sunday morning Facebook post by Colorado
music educator Bob Seay. His post reads, in part:

“I am not Trayvon
Martin. I am a middle-aged, middle class, overweight white guy. I am also a
teacher, and in 20 years of teaching, I have seen plenty of Trayvon Martins.
More accurately, I have seen plenty of young men who fit the caricatured image
that is being portrayed of this kid in the media, Left and Right. Fox News and
MSNBC. I'm guessing that neither portrayal -- saint or thug -- is accurate.
People are more complex than that. ... Let me be more blunt: This type of
injustice will continue until enough guys like
me -- guys who are not Trayvon Martin -- have had enough of it and finally
say "No more."

So far, Seay's statement has been shared tens of thousands
of times, and "Liked" by close to 100,000 Facebook users. On Tumblr, a similar blog, "We Are Not
Trayvon Martin," began to attract dozens of testimonials.

"I’m not Trayvon, I’m a white woman," reads one
such post. "I’ve never feared police being suspicious about me, they don’t
see me. If they do, they just want to say hi. ... I am not Trayvon but I am
tired of racism."

Reads another:

“I am not Trayvon Martin. My brother and I are both half
Filipino, but while my father was white, his father is black and hispanic.
Growing up, I was adored and doted on by the white women in our neighborhood
while my brother was ignored. I received scholarships to go to the top college
in the country while my brother was denied admission to a state school on a
financial technicality. I live in
Boston and will begin earning my PhD in the fall. My brother lives in Florida and continues to work service
jobs. My brother was 18 and living in Florida on the night Trayvon Martin was
killed. We both grew up in poverty, but only one of us was lifted out of it. We both
wear hoodies and eat skittles, but only one of us might be killed for it. All
for ... just the slightest difference in the shade of our skin.

I am not Trayvon
Martin, but my brother is, just as Trayvon Martin is my brother. “

Interestingly, before the Tumblr, before the Facebook post,
there was also this video, posted to YouTube by a young white woman back in
February 2012:

“And to the middle
class, white, socially-concerned activist who wears a shirt emblazoned with
those slogans: You are wrong. I know you wear that shirt to stand in solidarity
with Trayvon ... and other victims of injustice. The purpose of those shirts is
to humanize these victims of our society, by likening them to the middle class,
white activist wearing it. And once we've humanized the victims, this proves to
us the arbitrariness of their deaths, and thereby the injustice at play. ...
The fact that the real ... Trayvon Martin and countless other victims are
buried under six feet of cold dirt, while we middle class, white activists are
alive, marching and wearing their names, is an indication that our societal
system is working exactly as its intended. A more accurate T-shirt to display
on my white body would be: "I am George Zimmerman." Zimmerman and I
were indoctrinated in the same American discourse where we learned that the
other, particularly black men like Trayvon ... were less human and were to be
feared.”

Also noted is the fact that the NRA hasn’t posted an ‘If Trayvon
had a gun for self defense, yada, yada, yada.’

(HuffPostand TheGrio.com contributed to this story; all emphasis - Ed)